Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center opens this weekend

As the last train departed on Nov. 10, 1945, young LaDonna Zall quietly watched as Japanese-Americans walked away from the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp where they were confined as internees during World War II.

“It was snowing horizontally, as it does in Wyoming … they looked very cold, and there were soldiers in their long winter coats spaced along the way, their rifles on their shoulders, the bayonets shining in the gray daylight,” Zall recalled.

After several months of closed-door discussions, the Northwest College Board of Trustees barely agreed to extend a contract with President Paul Prestwich. Last week’s 4-3 vote means the board will begin to negotiate a contract with Prestwich to keep him at the college through at least June of 2013.

The split vote also means the college board doesn’t have complete confidence in the current president.

The Park County Fair parade rolled down Bent Street Saturday with dozens of floats, hundreds of spectators, airborne candy and old-time parade pageantry, celebrating the community at its best.

New changes, old-time favorites mark annual Park County Fair

Groomed goats will get their moment in the limelight. Jars of jam await the judges’ taste buds. Carnival rides are rolling into town.

It all means one thing: the annual Park County Fair is here.

As the Park County Fair begins this week featuring the annual traditions its known for — pig mud wrestling, the junior livestock sale, carnival rides, exhibits, performances and the demolition derby — some important elements are missing this year.

Father, daughter ride from Pennsylvania to Wyoming

Just consider this bicycle trip by the numbers:

A six-week journey covering more than 2,400 miles, bicycling a minimum of 14 hours a day, averaging 65 miles each day, encountering heat above 100 degrees, facing wind gusts of more than 40 mph — at age 80.

Park County residents haven’t approved a 1-cent sales tax proposal since 2006, but they’ve heard plenty of pitches in recent years.

Last year, local leaders talked about a temporary 1-cent capital facilities sales tax to pay for landfill transitions, such as a Powell transfer station, but the idea never made it to the ballot. Last August, voters did consider a $14.2 million tax proposal for West Park Hospital’s renovations, but they overwhelmingly defeated the measure with 67.7 percent of county voters opposed to the tax and only 32.3 percent in favor.

Council rejects social hosting ordinance

Should local residents face criminal penalties if they knowingly host a party where young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 consume alcohol or drugs?

The Powell City Council is split 2-5 on its answer to that question.

Delisting may be in sight for wolves in Wyoming

In the near future, management of Wyoming’s wolves should be exactly where it belongs — in the hands of the state.

During discussions last week, state and U.S. officials said they expect to publish a ruling by September detailing how to end federal protections for wolves in Wyoming and allow state management.

Wagner seizure-free since brain surgery

Just days after undergoing brain surgery to remove a benign tumor, Zach Wagner did what no one expected so soon: He came home.

Prior to the June 17 surgery in Arizona, doctors told Zach that, under the best case scenario, he would go home after two to four weeks. Instead, Zach was en route to Powell just four days after surgery.